DUers please help me out here

[malaise]

Is Chicago more corrupt than any other city or is it that Chicago politicians are actually exposed, charged and jailed?

[wtmusic]

1. Hmm.

Corruption has a long and colorful history in Chicago. I would say yes, it is more corrupt.

[malaise]

3. But their corrupt end up in jail

Most of the others don't even reach the courts. Is it more corrupt than Texas for example or do the men in Texas simply circle the wagons.

[wtmusic]

6. Some of their corrupt end up in jail

On the local level there are a lot of favors that go down, a lot of arm-twisting. That's how things get done. One could argue that Chicago is such a nice place to live because of it, but then you get this stuff (FWIW I lived there for 17 years).

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. Chicago has a historical reputation for party-machine politics dating back to the 1890s.

They never have shaken the stigma the way New York City and Boston have (both of which had vibrant political machines. Boston's machine lasted at least into the 1950s).

[Pharaoh]

4. Al Capones hangout...............

yeah the mobs been a real thorn in Illinois since gangster days....

[Warpy]

5. All big cities I've ever lived in have been massively corrupt

and to the point when one of the jokers got caught, you just had to laugh at his audacity and ridiculous sense of entitlement to public and private funds.

They don't get caught and jailed unless they get greedy enough to affect the income of all the other pols on the take.

[malaise]

9. He may have been Blago's twin

:D
What about Giuliani and Kerik? How come Kerik was indicted in November 2007 and we haven't seen him in court yet? At least Chicago crooks end up in jail.

[Robbien]

7. We have Fitz as our AG

And Fitz is on a crusade against corruption.

I expect these days with all the money flowing around pols, many of them are corrupt. We just have an AG who ignored Bush Admin's directive to go after War on Terror types and is going after corruption instead.

[malaise]

10. That makes sense to me

Corruption is endemic but at least in Chicago men are punished.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. Interesting question.

Some say New Orleans or Washington give them a run for title of the most corrupt American city.

[HillWilliam]

11. I've lived in Chicago and Louisiana

and Louisiana makes Chicago crooked look like kids' games. I've live in every major city in the US, but nothing anywhere does crooked like Louisiana. They're right out there with it, don't care who knows what. That's measured with the fact that when I lived in Chicago, I met and knew a few politicians. They are quite something.

[malaise]

12. Thanks

Is there any source where I can find a corruption index.

[HillWilliam]

13. Now that I don't know

since all I had to go on was my "aghast factor". I lived in Austin, then Chicago, then NY, LA, Dallas, Ft Lauderdale, then Louisiana and had traveled to most cities extensively in between. After eight months, the only thing I wanted out of Baton Rouge was me. I ended my contract and went back to south Florida. In any of those other places, you can meet some crooks if you worked close to politics, healthcare, or aviation and I had my fingers in all of them. I'd probably give Mississippi a close second. There again, that's just observation.

Don't think I'm slamming Louisiana. There are some mighty fine people there. They're just beset by a political system that's rotten to the core and stacked against them.

[malaise]

14. Tweety will be discussing this after the break

I'd like him to discuss New York's Kerik - he hasn't been charged yet. What about St Rudy of 9/11?

[ShortnFiery]

23. Tweety remains in his manic phase this evening.

What about your good buddy Tom "The Hammer" Delay? Tweety's a slobbering idiot. :crazy:

[EFerrari]

19. Miami. You just brought Miami to mind.

Maybe the simpler question would be, which American cities are not sewers?

[HillWilliam]

20. Boyhowdy, there's the short list

I've seen Europe and I've been to Australia. Our cities are a shame and there is zero excuse for it. There is not one single attractive city left in this entire United States and I have seen most of them. And I mean most. When big money wants a hunk of space, it just takes it, then doesn't bother to maintain anything around it. There's no civic responsibility whatsoever. People who have to live in cities are continuously marginalized by corporate interests; those who have a great deal of money can insulate themselves somewhat from the squalor. Those who don't have to do an awful lot of settling for whatever "trickles down". Let me tell you, from what I've seen, the only thing that trickles down is the drizzling shits.

Our roads are a miserable sight. Grime. Corruption. Greed and payola between city councils and the corporate masters they serve. The money floats to the top and nothing seems to get done in the way of decent maintenance. Walking-around folks have little choice but to give up and put up with it or do like I did and flee back to the country.

With all the money that gets collected in taxes from the little folks, you'd think that the corporations that live and survive in the cities would be made to pay their fair share for upkeep. It never happens. They're the first to get the mega-breaks and "incentives". They're paid well to despoil.

Meh, I'm sick of the rats and cockroaches. I'm not talking about the small vermin: I'm talking about the large corporate vermin who've blighted the landscape from sea to polluted sea without the slightest bit of this bullshit "personal responsibility" they bitch about the rest of us undertaking.

Fuck 'em. They need to start toting their own damn note. If these corporations want to be "real persons" under the law, then they by-gawd need to start acting like responsible citizens and stop pointing the finger at the rest of us.

[ShortnFiery]

22. Since "The Kingfish" Huey Long was killed, LA Politicos often are "for sale" to the highest bidder.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAlongH.htm

Long also claimed that Roosevelt had done little to redistribute wealth. When Roosevelt refused to introduce legislation to place ceilings on personal incomes, private fortunes and inheritances, Long launched his Share Our Wealth Society. In February 1934. He told the Senate: "Unless we provide for redistribution of wealth in this country, the country is doomed." He added the nation faced a choice, it could limit large fortunes and provide a decent standard of life for its citizens, or it could wait for the inevitable revolution.

Long quoted research that suggested "2% of the people owned 60% of the wealth". In one radio broadcast he told the listeners: "God called: 'Come to my feast.' But what had happened? Rockefeller, Morgan, and their crowd stepped up and took enough for 120,000,000 people and left only enough for 5,000,000 for all the other 125,000,000 to eat. And so many millions must go hungry."

Long's plan involved taxing all incomes over a million dollars. On the second million the capital levy tax would be one per cent. On the third, two per cent, on the fourth, four per cent; and so on. Once a personal fortune exceeded $8 million, the tax would become 100 per cent. Under his plan, the government would confiscate all inheritances of more than one million dollars.

This large fund would then enable the government to guarantee subsistence for everyone in America. Each family would receive a basic household estate of $5,000. There would also be a minimum annual income of $2,000 per year. Other aspects of his Share Our Wealth Plan involved government support for education, old-age pensions, benefits for war veterans and public-works projects.

[mdmc]

15. I think that the windy city has some tough political climate.

Like the Grateful Dead song, "Houston...got a soft machine..."

Well Albany, NY has had a Knickerbocker controlled government for about 100 years... It is a very soft (not vicious) political machine, run by Democrats.
If a smart up and comer comes to the scene, the machine does not destroy them. They include them. Even if they are GOP. As long as they are team players with the big boys, they are welcome.

Outsiders are crushed. Those willing to play are allowed to. No criminal "takedowns" cause everyone is on the take. And if you are not on the take, you are not in power, so you can't take anyone down.

Only when the powers that be butt heads (like McCall and Andrew Cuomeo) do you see a brewhaha.... otherwise this tough city is kept on track by the machine...

[malaise]

16. I'm enjoying this discussion with Stan Brand

He knows about all the crooks in and out of Illinois.

[EFerrari]

17. It must be "bang for your buck". New York and Los Angeles

are not populated by altar boys.

Boston, Philly, Atlanta and San Francisco have their own stories.

Maybe Chicago has a more active press that reports this cr@p than other places do. :shrug:

ETA: Colbert Watcher reminded me about New Orleans and DC.

[ddeclue]

18. Try New Orleans and Louisiana...

how many corrupt governors and politicians and cops have THEY had over the years?

I'm sure they'd give Chicago a run for its money...

[SmileyRose]

21. A former Atlanta Mayor went to the big house for a few years.

I am unsure if Bill Campbell is already out or soon to be out but I think he got sent to the federal pen for 3 years.